1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a device and method for allocating an Internet protocol (IP) address in a network, and more particularly to a device and method for allocating the same Internet protocol (IP) address to all information terminals connected to a specific local network.
2. Related Art
In order for information terminals to gain access to the Internet, when the information terminals are connected to a local network established in a home or office, it is necessary to assign a distinguishable Internet protocol (IP) address to each of the information terminals. The information terminals can also be referred to as hosts. Thus, in order for a predetermined number of hosts to gain access to the Internet, it is necessary to allocate the same number of
However, it is can be difficult to allocate a large number of public Internet protocol (IP) addresses due to Internet protocol (IP) address depletion. As more and more hosts are connected to telephone lines, cable modems, wireless networks and other devices and networks in order to have access to the Internet, with each one of the hosts having its own Internet protocol address, the number of available Internet protocol addresses is becoming reduced.
One method to overcome such a problem is for a plurality of hosts to share a single Internet protocol (IP) address using network address translation (NAT). However, sometimes network address translation (NAT) can result in faulty operation of a system or can result in directing a packet to a wrong place.
Exemplars of recent efforts related to Internet protocol addresses are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,638 to Mahler et al., entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTIONS BASED ADDRESS REUSE, issued on Apr. 30, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,820 to Dobbins et al., entitled INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) WORK GROUP ROUTING, issued on Jun. 19, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,950 to Krishnan, entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR INTERFACING A COMPUTER OR SMALL NETWORK TO A WIDE AREA NETWORK SUCH AS THE INTERNET, issued on Dec. 5, 2000, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,614 to Borella et al., entitled METHOD AND PROTOCOL FOR DISTRIBUTED NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION, issued on Mar. 5, 2002, Network Working Group Request for Comments 1631, entitled THE IP NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATOR (NAT) by K. Egevang et al. dated May 1994, Network Working Group Request for Comments 2131, entitled DYNAMIC HOST CONFIGURATION PROTOCOL, by R. Droms dated March 1997, and Network Working Group Request for Comments 2132, entitled DHCP OPTIONS AND BOOTP VENDOR EXTENSIONS by S. Alexander et al. dated March 1997.
While these efforts contain significance, it is my observation that further improvements can also be contemplated.